American singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello has shared her new single, ‘Thus Sayeth The Lorde’, lifted from her forthcoming Blue Note album, ‘No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin’, out August 2nd via Centennial. ‘Thus Sayeth The Lorde’ follows on from previous singles ‘Travel’, ‘Raise The Roof’ and ‘Love’, embedding and invoking the voice of Audre Lorde into the sonic homage to writer and activist James Baldwin.“There’s a YouTube video of Baldwin with Nikki Giovanni. Watching that I could see that Baldwin had to work a little bit on his feminism,” Ndegeocello told NPR All Things Considered host Ari Shaprio. “So within the project, we wanted to add another voice. And I think Audre Lorde just fits within that continuum of information and knowledge.”The sprawling ‘No More Water, co-produced by Ndegeocello and guitarist Chris Bruce, is inspired by Baldwin’s seminal nonfiction work The Fire Next Time, which Ndegeocello carried with her as a “spiritual text”. Following her Blue Note debut, ‘The Omnichord Real Book‘, which won the inaugural GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album, the virtuoso fashioned an immersive and introspective performance piece that brings the poetic profundity of Baldwin’s work to life.“Inspired by Baldwin’s most well-known essay, Ndegeocello’s piece – often staged as a church service -employs music, sermon, text, images, and movement, all of which enter into conversation with Baldwin’s monumental and delicate essay about how black bodies were perceived not only by white Americans but by blacks themselves,” writes Als in the album’s liner notes. Listen to ‘Thus Sayeth The Lorde’ below. ——Photo Credit: Andre Wagner
Meshell Ndegeocello Shares New Single ‘Thus Sayeth The Lorde’
